Rockets in too deep without depth

Portland played in Oklahoma City on Friday night, finding two of the Big Three waiting for them, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, and they were too much for the Blazers.

But they played at Toyota Center on Saturday night, with only one Thunder, a former one at that, to beat, and they did so, 95-85 in overtime.

James Harden did his best, leading the Rockets in scoring, but with a mere 24 points as opposed to the 45 he had scored the night before in a victory at Atlanta and the 37 at Detroit in the season opener on Wednesday night.

It was clear Harden was worn out, not yet a week since he was traded from the Thunder and still finding his role with his new team. It didn’t help that he tweaked his ankle in the third quarter and, although he returned to the game, he was not at his best. He was limping badly in the locker room afterward.

Although the Rockets surprised everyone by winning their first two games on the road, their No. 1 but not only weakness was exposed in the home opener.

They have good players, just not enough of them. The adrenaline, the sellout crowd of 18,140 and the fact that the Blazers also played away from home Friday night kept the Rockets’ hopes alive of winning a third consecutive game into the final minute of regulation. Wouldn’t that have been something, to be 3-0 while the Lakers are 0-3?

But, at the end, the Rockets lost the battle of attrition.

LaMarcus Aldridge, the former University of Texas center, was too much for them inside, with 27 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. But he had help from Nicolas Battum, who had 17 points and nine rebounds, Damian Lillard, who had 20 points and nine assists and Wesley Matthews, who had 16 points and hit the key three-pointer late to send the game into overtime,.

The Rockets? Harden had 24 points. But not much help. No teammate scored more than 13.

Jeremy Lin was good at moments, one play in particular reminiscent of his Sports Center highlights last season with the Knicks, finishing with 13 points and seven assists. But it didn’t help that the Rockets’ best rookie, Royce White, who has been dealing with emotional problems, sat out the game with a migraine headache. They need him, or someone, to step up on the second half of these back-to-back games when everyone else is fatigued.

To his credit, Harden made no excuses.

Asked if the games on consecutive nights contributed to the defeat, he said, “Not at all. We’re well-conditioned athletes, professionals.”

But coach Kevin McHale said it was clear “our guys got a little tired.”

He called the offense stagnant.

That was particularly true late in the game, when he said the Rockets were “draggy.”

These, for now, are your 2012-2013 Rockets. They will be tantalizingly close to being good at times, will win more games than most thought they would because of the addition of Harden, especially if Lin plays up to his potential, but they still need more players who can really contribute over a rigorous 82-game schedule.